JP2018504586A - Uniformity test system - Google Patents

Abstract

A tire uniformity tester including a base and a pair of spaced apart vertical columns supporting an upper cross frame member. The base supports a load wheel carriage that is movable toward and away from the test station. The vertical solid body forms an installation perimeter plane that does not extend beyond the plane tangential to the outer rolling surface of the load wheel when retracted. The upper frame member is attached to the upper surface of the cross member equipped with a clearance space and cutout that allows at least a portion of the upper chuck to move into the upper frame member, and at least a portion of an actuator for translating the upper chuck. And a superstructure. This configuration creates a machine height that allows the machine to be loaded into a standard shipping container and reduces the overall footprint of the tire uniformity tester without compromising the ability to accurately sense tire uniformity parameters. . [Selection] Figure 1

Description

  This application claims priority to US Provisional Patent Application No. 62/086288, filed December 2, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

  The present invention relates generally to tire uniformity testing, and more particularly to a tire uniformity testing machine that has a compact footprint and can be easily transported in a standard shipping container.

  Many, if not most, tire manufacturing facilities have tire uniformity testing machines for testing and grading manufactured tires in addition to tire manufacturing facilities. An example of such a machine is disclosed in a certain patent document (for example, see Patent Document 1). This type of machine is very complex and includes many components, including a tire test station and a road wheel that contacts the tire and applies a set force to the tire in the test cycle. A sensor, usually in the form of a load cell that supports the load wheel, senses tire uniformity parameters in the tire under test. This information can be used to grade the tire and pass the tire as having met manufacturing requirements or to fail the tire as failing to meet the requirements. In order to perform a tire uniformity test, the component must be securely attached to the frame structure so that the force generated during the test cycle does not cause excessive movement, vibration, etc. to the test element. As a result, many prior art tire uniformity testers, such as the machines disclosed in the above-mentioned patents, occupy a large floor area in the manufacturing facility. In many facilities, floor space is important, and as a result, a tire uniformity tester with a smaller footprint is required.

US Pat. No. 6,016,695

  The present invention provides a new and improved tire uniformity testing machine that occupies a smaller footprint in a manufacturing facility than prior art machines without compromising the ability to accurately measure tire uniformity parameters in a test subject. provide.

  According to one embodiment of the present invention, a tire uniformity tester includes a base, an upper cross frame member spaced above the base, and an upper cross frame member extending upward from at least one end of the base. And a vertical support structure that supports at least one end. In accordance with the present invention, a pair of spaced apart vertical posts extend upward from another end of the base to support another end of the upper cross frame member.

  The base forms a tire test position where the tire to be tested is rotatably mounted. A road wheel carriage that is at least partially supported by the base includes a rotatable road wheel that is movable along a transverse line of action toward and away from the tire test station. The road wheel forms a rolling surface that is engageable with the periphery of the tire under test, and the road wheel and tire are a pair of parallel, substantially vertical axes such that the working transverse line passes through the axis of rotation. Can be rotated around. According to the present invention, the spaced apart pillars extending upward are arranged such that the peripheral part of the road wheel is arranged between the supports and the support is tangential to the outer part of the rolling surface of the road wheel and is against the working line. Arranged to form an outer footprint plane that is substantially outside the orthogonal plane.

  In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a road wheel carriage assembly is disclosed that includes a pair of spaced apart vertical supports and upper and lower vertically spaced cloth members supported by the vertical supports. The The upper and lower load cells are respectively attached to the upper and lower cloth members, and the load hole is rotatably supported therebetween. The road wheel rolling surface engages the periphery of the tire under test when the carriage assembly is moved to the tire test position. According to the features of the load carriage assembly of this embodiment, the load wheel includes a portion that fits between vertical columns. At least one actuator moves the carriage toward and away from the tire test position.

  According to a feature of this embodiment, the vertical support of the road wheel carriage has a triangular cross section so that the hypotenuse of the triangular cross section faces the rolling surface of the road wheel. According to this embodiment, the triangular vertical support, upper and lower vertically spaced cloth, and other structures are substantially free from bending moments that occur when the road wheel contacts the tire under test. The carriage assembly frame is configured to be substantially rigid so as to resist. As a result, distortion of the road wheel fixture (which makes measurement inaccurate) is substantially suppressed. In a preferred embodiment, the road wheel actuator is positioned below the road wheel rather than aligned with the central radial plane of the road wheel so that the carriage frame in the preferred embodiment is a drive component associated with the actuator. Since it is not in a position to resist the bending moment applied to the load wheel carriage during the test, it is configured to be substantially rigid as described above.

  According to another feature of the invention, the base, vertical column and upper cross frame member are configured such that the machine forms a height dimension that fits within a standard shipping container.

  According to another feature of the invention, the tire uniformity tester includes an upper chuck assembly that is movable toward and away from the tire test location. According to this feature, the upper cross frame member includes a clearance space and an opening that allows at least a portion of the upper chuck assembly to be received within the upper cross frame member when the upper chuck assembly is retracted. An upper structure that at least partially supports an actuator for moving the upper chuck assembly toward and away from the tire test position is secured to the upper surface of the upper cross frame member.

  The overall height of the tire uniformity tester having the disclosed features is such that the upper cross from the bottom of the base can be loaded so that the tire uniformity tester can be loaded into a standard shipping container after removing the superstructure and other related components. It can be configured to measure up to the top surface of the frame member and equal to or less than the height of a standard shipping container, or 96 inches. This facilitates transportation of the disclosed tire uniformity tester and substantially reduces transportation costs and the need for costly reassembly at the customer site.

  According to features of another embodiment of a load wheel carriage assembly, a carriage assembly is disclosed that engages a track mounted on a base. The track supports a linear movement toward and away from the tire tire test position. According to this feature, a coupling arrangement is provided that couples the spaced vertical supports to the track so as to resist bending moments in the vertical supports that occur during the test cycle.

  According to another feature of the invention, the tire testing machine includes a human control module for controlling the testing machine. The control module supported by the pendant does not need to be removed to transport the machine. In particular, the pendant includes at least one arm section pivotally connected to the mounting plate. The mounting plate is slidably attached to one end of the upper cross frame member until locked by a lock fastener. According to the present invention, the pendant arm can be raised to a position where it can be raised above the upper surface of the upper cross frame member. When the pendant arm is permanently attached in this manner, transport of the tire uniformity tester in a standard shipping container is only possible by removing the top of the pendant arm. In the disclosed invention, the mounting plate is used for transport so that the pendant arm is lower than the upper surface of the upper cross frame member, thereby not compromising the possibility of transporting the tire uniformity tester in a standard transport container. Can be slid downward by releasing the lock fastener. For this purpose, the mounting plate includes a vertical slot that allows the mounting plate to move vertically from the upper operating position to the lower transport position.

  In the disclosed invention, a smaller footprint tire uniformity tester is provided so that the tire uniformity tester occupies less space at the manufacturer's site than prior art devices. This reduction in footprint does not impair the ability of the machine to accurately measure the uniformity parameter in the tire under test.

  The features of the present invention will become apparent and more fully understood by reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

1 is a perspective view of a tire uniformity test system configured in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 2 is a front view of the system of FIG. It is a side view of a system. It is a right view of a system. FIG. 2 is a partial view of the system of FIG. FIG. 2 is a top view of the system with parts removed to show details. 1 is a partial view of a system showing details of a road wheel carriage constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a system showing a road wheel carriage operatively connected to a portion of a frame and a frame member. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a system with parts removed to show details of a load carriage assembly and load wheel constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. It is a side view which shows the detail of a road wheel carriage. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the tire testing system viewed along line 11-11 in FIG. FIG. 12 is a view of a portion of the uniformity test system taken along line 12-12 of FIG. It is a perspective view of a load wheel carriage. FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view of the tire testing system viewed along line 14-14 of FIG. FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view of the tire testing system viewed along line 15-15 in FIG. 6; FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view of the tire testing system viewed along line 16-16 of FIG. FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional view of the tire test system viewed along line 17-17 in FIG. 5; 3 shows another load wheel carriage configuration.

  FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a tire uniformity test system configured in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated apparatus is an improvement on the tire uniformity test system disclosed in US Pat. No. 6,016,695 (incorporated herein by reference). With reference to FIGS. 2-4, the improved tire uniformity test system includes a frame structure generally designated 10. FIG. 17, which is a cross-sectional view of the tire testing machine taken along line 17-17 in FIG. 2, shows details of the frame. The frame 10 includes a pair of cubes 14-16 spaced on one side of the frame and a cubes 20, 22 forming a pair of angles on opposite sides of the frame. The frame 10 includes a base base 26 that is included as a right cross member 26a when viewed in FIG. 17, and the right solid bodies 14 and 16 are firmly attached to the cross member. The relatively short cloth member 26b is disposed on the left side of the base, includes the base plate BP, and the solid bodies 20 and 22 are firmly attached to the base plate.

  A horizontal frame member 30 that is structurally similar to the base 26 is attached to the top of the pillars 14, 16, 20 and 22. The horizontal frame member 30 is removably equipped with a superstructure 34 equipped with a linear actuator 36, the actuator being on top of an adjustable width chuck toward and away from the spindle assembly 36b attached to the base member 26. Actuate to move portion 36a. The upper portion 36a and the spindle portion 36b of the chuck are equipped with a half rim that is used to clamp the tire in the test cycle. The adjustable width chuck is substantially similar to the chuck disclosed in US Pat. No. 5,992,227 (incorporated herein by reference). FIG. 14 details the important features of the present invention. In particular, the horizontal frame member 30 includes a clearance opening 30a and a cutout 30b. This configuration of the frame member allows at least a portion of the upper chuck 36a to move into the horizontal frame member 30 when fully retracted. In connection with this feature, the upper structure 34 is equipped with a chuck actuating cylinder 36 and is mounted above the upper surface 30 d of the frame member 30. In the prior art arrangement, the chucking cylinder is attached to the horizontal frame member and the upper chuck portion 36a is raised until its upper end abuts the lower flange 30c. As a result, the horizontal frame member of the prior art design must be mounted at a substantially higher position than the frame member 30 shown in FIG. 14 to accommodate the full range of motion of the upper chuck portion 36a. In the array shown in FIG. 14, the vertical dimension between the base of the machine and the upper surface 30d of the horizontal cross member is reduced. If the height dimension indicated by S is less than or less than 96 inches (243.8 cm), the upper structure 24 and related component bolts can be removed and removed from the horizontal cross member 30 to form a standard shipping container. Can be loaded. This facilitates transportation of the disclosed tire uniformity tester and reduces overall transportation costs. The height dimension S does not include a leveling pad 39 that is used to level the machine at the customer site.

  The upright column 16 is equipped with a jib crane 40, which includes sections 40a and 40b that are pivotably attached to each other so that the arm elements can articulate as shown in FIG. The arm element 40a is rotatably attached to the column 16. The attachment of the jib crane 40 to the frame can be seen from FIG.

  Referring to FIGS. 5 and 8, the frame is equipped with a road wheel carriage, indicated generally by the reference numeral 50, and the carriage is rotatably equipped with a load wheel 52. The load wheel may be of conventional construction, such as that shown in US Pat. No. 5,979,231 (incorporated herein by reference). With particular reference to FIG. 8, the load wheel carriage includes a slidably movable carriage frame 50a (FIG. 13). The carriage frame 50a includes a pair of spaced side supports 54 that include a bearing block 60 that slidably engages a single linear bearing rail 58. The side support 54 includes a horizontal mounting block 54 a that is rigidly equipped with a bearing block 60 (FIGS. 5 and 7) that engages the rail 58.

  Carriage 50 includes upper and lower load cells and load cell fittings 66, 68 (FIGS. 7 and 8), which load cell 52 rotatably supports load wheel 52. The load wheel carriage 50 includes one rectangular solid 70, 72, which in the preferred embodiment has a triangular shape as can be seen in FIGS. In the disclosed configuration, the rectangular shape surrounds a portion of the road wheel 52 and reduces the overall transverse dimensions of the road wheel and carriage as compared to the road wheel carriage shown in US Pat. No. 5,999,231. In the preferred embodiment shown, the hypotenuse of each triangular solid controls the rolling surface 52a of the road wheel. In fact, the outer portion 53 of the road wheel is housed between the right cubes 70 and 72 (FIG. 12). As a result, as can be seen from FIG. 17, the overall footprint of the tire uniformity tester / system is substantially reduced. In the disclosed configuration, when the load wheel is retracted, it can substantially form the rearmost plane of the machine. In the preferred embodiment, the back surface of the load wheel and the back surface of the vertical columns 14, 16 when retracted are in substantially the same plane (FIG. 17).

  As shown in FIG. 17, the wheel spindle 36b attached to the base 26 is operatively connected to the drive motor 76 by a drive belt 76a coupled thereto. An encoder 78 (only a part of which is shown) is also connected to the output side of the drive motor 76 by a belt 78a coupled thereto, and monitors the relative position of the tire to be tested.

  The load wheel carriage 50 (supports the load wheel 52) moves toward and away from the upper and lower chuck portions (36a, 36b). With particular reference to FIG. 17, the carriage 50 is configured so that the rotation axis 82 of the road wheel 52 remains aligned with the rotation axis 84 of the spindle 36b when the road wheel contacts the tire held by the chuck. And a line 80 (also indicated as center line CL) extending through the rotation axis 84 and the rotation axis 84 of the lower spindle 36b.

  Referring also to FIG. 11, movement in the load wheel carriage 50 is obtained using a linear actuator with a rotating ball screw 90. The ball screw 90 is rotated by a drive motor 92 that descends downward from the gearbox. The ball screw 90 is attached to an output gear (not shown) in the gear box as is conventional. The ball nut 96 is attached to the load wheel carriage 50 via a transverse drive plate 96a (FIG. 8). As shown in FIG. 8, the rotation of the ball screw 90 causes a linear movement of the load wheel carriage 50 along the linear bearing rail 58, and the moving direction is determined by the rotating direction of the ball screw 90. The frame base 26 includes a fixed stopper 99 that limits the inward movement of the load carriage 50 (FIG. 8).

The configuration of the load carriage 50 and particularly the configuration of the carriage drive system substantially reduces the footprint of the disclosed tire uniformity tester / system. Referring to FIG. 11, the load wheel 52 forms upper and lower radial planes P ₄ and P ₅ , respectively. As can be seen in FIG. 11, the carriage drive is located below the load wheel 52 or below the lower plane P _{5 as} compared to the prior art design as shown in US Pat. No. 5,999,231. In the prior art design, the carriage drive is mounted on the side of the load wheel and carriage outside the machine, thus substantially increasing the machine footprint. The invention envisages mounting the carriage drive above the road wheel, ie above the plane P ₄ . The present invention also contemplates the attachment of one or more of the carriage drive unit on both sides of the road wheel 52, above the plane P ₄ and P _5, below or in between. For example, one or more carriage drive units can be mounted in series with and / or coupled to a solid three-dimensional road wheel 70,72.

  In the disclosed configuration, the force that the tire exerts on the load wheel during the test cycle tends to deviate the upper load cell 66 from vertical alignment with the lower load cell fixture 68. In the disclosed configuration, this is corrected by using a rigid cloth material 110 that interconnects the triangular solids 70, 72 and the top of the rectangular solid. The carriage frame, as can be seen from FIG. 13, is combined with an upper cross member 110 and a substantially rigid frame that can withstand the bending moment that occurs when the road wheel is brought into contact with the tire under test. And includes a rigid lower cross member 112 formed thereon. In the disclosed configuration, the carriage frame 50 withstands the bending moment applied by the load wheel 52 during testing so that the net distortion in the position of the upper cell fixture 66 and the lower cell fixture 68 is within vertical alignment limits. It is done.

  As discussed above, the carriage configuration substantially reduces the cross-sectional dimension of the lead wheel assembly so that the back surface of the load wheel 52 can form a substantially rearmost plane of the machine. In a preferred embodiment, the back surface of the road wheel and the back surface of the triangular cube 70, 72 are substantially in the same plane.

The relationship between the various components affecting the “installation area” of the machine can be seen from FIGS. With particular reference to FIG. 12, the outermost or left side of the base (in FIG. 12) is indicated by the plane indicated by reference numeral P ₁ . Referring to FIG. 17, a plane P _{2 that} is tangent to the rolling surface 52 a of the load wheel 52 and is orthogonal to the center line 80 is formed. As described above, the center line extends through the rotating shaft 82 of the load wheel 52 and the rotating shaft 84 of the lower spindle 36b. As it can be seen from Figure 9, in a preferred embodiment, the outermost surface and a horizontal cross member 110 of the load wheel carriage (with vertical support 70, 72) forms a plane P _3. In the preferred embodiment shown, the plane P ₁ (formed by the cubes 14, 16) does not extend to the left (as viewed in FIG. 12) of the plane P ₂ formed by the road wheel. The plane P ₃ preferably coincides with P ₂ or is slightly to the right of the plane P ₂ as shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 14, the installation dimension F ₁ is minimized as much as possible compared to the prior art. The installation dimension F ₁ can be considered as the transverse dimension or longitudinal dimension (or depth) of the machine, depending on the location of the machine on the floor of the structure.

Referring to FIG. 6, the installation dimension of the machine across dimension F ₁ is denoted F ₂ . Installation dimension F ₂ is preferably less than or equal to dimension F ₂ . In the preferred embodiment shown, smaller dimensions F _2. In many large tire manufacturing facilities, multiple tire lines are used, each fed to an associated tire uniformity machine. These tire lines are often arranged side by side in a substantially parallel relationship. There is a passage between each tire line. The distance between these adjacent tire lines is affected by the transverse dimension of the tire uniformity tester, that is, the F ₁ dimension. By reducing the F ₁ dimension of each tire uniformity testing machine, since the space occupied by the tire uniformity tester adjacent decreases, in large-scale production machine can accommodate additional tire lines in a given space . Thus, more machines and associated tire lines can be accommodated. Furthermore, by minimizing the F ₁ dimension, the uniformity tester of the present invention can be contained within a smaller utilization space. This dimension is minimized by the present invention so that the disclosed tire uniformity tester occupies a much smaller footprint in a manufacturing environment compared to this type of prior art machine.

  Referring to FIG. 1, the tire uniformity test system includes features that allow the system to be easily transported in a shipping container. In particular, as shown in FIG. 1, the articulatable pendant arm 120 extends from the side of the machine and is equipped with an HMI 126. The first arm section 120a of the pendant 120 is preferably mounted at a height above the cross member 30 so as to accommodate the full range of movement of the pendant without obstructing the upper frame member 30. The articulated arm 120 supports a plurality of signal wires (not shown) from the human operation control module 126. The upper end of the pendant arm is attached to a mounting plate 130 that is slidably attached to one end of the upper cross member 30 so that the pendant arm 120 and associated signal wires need not be cut from the body frame. The vertical dimension (FIG. 14) between the bottom surface of the base member 26 and the top surface 30d of the cross member 30 is designed so that the machine fits within the shipping container. Thus, when loading test system / machine 10 into a shipping container, pressure tank 140 and superstructure 34 (equipped with linear actuator 36) are removed from cross member 30. The upper end of the pendant arm 120 is attached to a plate 130 including a slot 130a as shown in FIG. The pendant arm is such that the bolts 132 holding the plate 130 to the upper horizontal frame member 30 are loosened so that the plate 130 can slide downward so that the upper link 120a is below the level formed by the upper surface of the cross member 30. 120 is lowered. The pendant arm 120 can then be folded over the side of the machine so that the test system can be loaded into a standard shipping container.

  FIG. 18 shows another configuration of the load wheel carriage 50 '. In this alternative configuration, the carriage includes a rigid frame structure 150 that supports a pair of vertically aligned load cell / load wheel fixtures 66 ', 68'. The load cell is equipped with a load wheel 52 for rotation. As previously described, tire loading by the load wheel during the test cycle tends to cause the frame to bend and cause the upper and lower load cells 66, 68 to become misaligned. According to the configuration shown in FIG. 18, the pair of parallel links 156 extend between the carriage frame 150 and the rigid cloth material 160. The cloth material 160 is equipped with a pair of spaced bearing blocks (not shown, but the same or similar to the previously described bearing block 60) that slidably engage the linear bearing rail 58 (FIG. 8). A frame 150 (which rotatably holds the load wheel 52) engages the linear bearing rail 58 so that the frame 150 and the rigid cloth material 160 move as an assembly along the linear bearing rail 58 as an assembly. Bearing block (not shown, but the same or similar to the bearing block 60 of FIGS. 2 and 5). A link 156 extending between the road wheel frame 150 and the cloth material 160 resists the bending moment applied to the road wheel frame 50 when the road wheel 52 contacts the tire in the test cycle. The link 156 provides strain forces that cause misalignment of the upper load cell 66 'and the lower load cell 68'. This link array resists carriage 150 distortion outside the limits allowed for accurate testing.

  Although the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, those skilled in the art will recognize that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as claimed below.

Claims (18)

a) a base;
b) an upper cross frame member spaced above the base;
c) a vertical support structure extending upwardly from at least one end of the base to support at least one end of the upper cross frame member;
d) a pair of spaced apart vertical columns extending upward from another end of the base;
e) the base forms a tire test position where the tire to be tested is rotatably mounted;
f) a tire uniformity test comprising a road wheel carriage including a rotatable road wheel supported at least partially by the base and movable toward and away from the tire test station along a working transverse line. In the machine
g) the rotatable road wheel forms a rolling surface engageable with the periphery of the tire under test, the rotatable road wheel and the tire being rotatable about a pair of parallel, substantially vertical axes The transverse line of action extends through the axis,
h) the upwardly spaced spaced columns are arranged such that a peripheral portion of the rotatable road wheel is disposed between the supports, the supports being tangent to an outer portion of the rolling surface; A tire uniformity tester that forms an outer installation plane that is substantially outside the plane that is formed and orthogonal to the transverse line of action. The road wheel carriage
a) a pair of spaced apart vertical supports and a pair of vertically spaced cloth members extending between said vertical supports, wherein said pair of cloth members are equipped with an upper load cell assembly A pair of cloth materials, including a cloth material and a lower cloth material equipped with a lower load cell assembly, wherein the upper load cell assembly and the lower load cell assembly rotatably support the rotatable load wheel. And comprising
b) the vertical supports are disposed on opposite sides of the peripheral portion of the rotatable road wheel such that the peripheral portion of the rotatable road wheel fits between the vertical supports;
c) the road wheel carriage further includes an actuator extending substantially outside of the outer mounting plane formed by the vertical column when the rotatable road wheel is moved toward and away from the tire test station. The tire uniformity tester of claim 1, comprising at least one actuator positioned such that there is no.   The tire uniformity testing machine according to claim 2, wherein the spaced vertical supports of the road wheel carriage have a triangular cross section, and the hypotenuse of the triangular cross section faces the rolling surface of the rotatable road wheel.   The tire uniformity testing machine according to claim 1, wherein the vertical column structure includes a pair of adjacent vertical columns forming an angle. In the load wheel carriage assembly,
The load wheel carriage assembly includes:
a) a pair of spaced apart vertical supports;
b) Vertically spaced upper and lower cloth members supported by the vertical support;
c) an upper load cell and a lower load cell attached to the upper cloth member and the lower cloth member, respectively, wherein the load wheel is rotatably supported between the upper load cell and the lower load cell;
d) the road wheel has a rolling surface that engages the periphery of the tire under test when the road wheel carriage assembly is moved to a tire test position;
e) the road wheel includes a portion that fits between the pair of vertical columns, the upper radial surface of the road wheel is in the upper plane and the lower radial surface is in the lower plane;
f) at least one actuator for moving the carriage toward and away from the tire test position, the actuator being disposed above the upper plane of the road wheel or below the lower plane; A load wheel carriage assembly comprising an actuator.   6. The road wheel carriage assembly of claim 5, wherein the vertical support has a triangular cross section, and the hypotenuse of the triangular cross section faces the rolling surface of the road wheel.   The tire uniformity test of claim 1, wherein the base, vertical column and upper cross frame member are configured to form a height dimension that allows the tire uniformity tester to fit within a standard shipping container. Machine. The road wheel carriage
a) a pair of spaced apart vertical supports and a pair of vertically spaced cloth members extending between said vertical supports, said pair of cloth members comprising an upper load cell assembly A pair of cross members that includes an upper cross member and a lower cross member equipped with a lower load cell assembly, and the upper load cell assembly and the lower load cell assembly rotatably support the load wheel. Prepared,
b) the vertical supports are disposed on opposite sides of the peripheral portion of the road wheel such that the peripheral portion of the road wheel fits between the vertical supports;
c) The road wheel carriage further comprises at least one actuator disposed below or above the road wheel to move the road wheel toward and away from the tire test station. The tire uniformity tester described. In the load wheel carriage assembly,
The load wheel carriage assembly includes:
a) a pair of spaced apart vertical supports;
b) Vertically spaced upper and lower cloth members supported by the vertical support;
c) an upper load cell and a lower load cell respectively attached to the upper cloth material and the lower cloth material, the load wheel being rotatably supported between the upper load cell and the lower load cell;
d) the road wheel has a rolling surface that engages the periphery of the tire under test when the carriage assembly is moved to the tire test position;
e) the road wheel includes a portion that is housed between the vertical columns, the upper radial surface of the road wheel is in the upper plane, the lower radial surface is in the lower plane,
f) at least one actuator for moving the carriage toward and away from the tire test position when the load wheel moves toward and away from the tire test station; An actuator arranged and configured such that the actuator does not extend substantially outside an outer mounting plane formed by the vertical support. a) a base;
b) an upper cross frame member spaced above the base;
c) a pair of spaced apart vertical columns extending upward from another end of the base;
d) the base forms a tire test position to which the tested tire is rotatably mounted;
e) an upper chuck assembly movable toward and away from the tire test position, wherein the upper cross frame member is at least one of the upper chuck assemblies when the upper chuck assembly is retracted. An upper chuck assembly including a clearance opening that allows a portion to be received within the upper cross frame member;
f) an upper structure secured to the upper portion of the upper cross frame member that at least partially supports an actuator for moving the upper chuck assembly toward and away from the tire test position; Tire uniformity tester.   The base, vertical support and upper cross frame member so that the tire uniformity tester fits into a standard shipping container after the superstructure and associated components are removed from the upper cross frame member. 11. The tire uniformity tester height measured from the bottom surface of the base to the top surface of the upper cross frame member is configured to be equal to or less than 96 inches (243.8 cm). The tire uniformity tester described.   The tire uniformity tester according to claim 7, wherein the height dimension is 96 inches or less. In the load wheel carriage assembly,
The load wheel carriage assembly includes:
a) a pair of spaced apart vertical supports;
b) Vertically spaced upper and lower cloth members supported by the vertical support;
c) an upper load cell and a lower load cell attached to the upper cloth material and the lower cloth material, respectively, wherein a load wheel is rotatably supported between the upper load cell and the lower load cell;
d) the road wheel has a rolling surface that engages the periphery of the tire under test when the road wheel carriage assembly is moved to a tire test position;
e) the road wheel includes a portion that fits between the vertical columns, the upper radial surface of the road wheel is in the upper plane and the lower radial surface is in the lower plane;
f) at least one actuator for moving the carriage toward and away from the tire test position, the actuator being disposed above the upper plane of the road wheel or below the lower plane; The actuator,
g) the carriage assembly engages a track mounted on the base to support linear movement of the carriage toward and away from the tire test position;
h) a link array that couples the spaced apart water support to the track, the link array resisting bending moments in the vertical support that occur during a tire test cycle; A road wheel carriage assembly comprising:   And a human control module for controlling the tire uniformity tester, supported by a pendant including at least one arm section pivotally connected to the mounting plate, the mounting plate having an upper actuation 11. The tire uniformity tester according to claim 10, wherein the tire uniformity tester is slidably attached to an end of the upper cross frame member until it is locked by a lock fastener so as to move up and down between a position and a lower transport position. .   The mounting plate includes a substantially vertical slot for receiving a fastener for securing the mounting plate to the end of the upper cross frame member, the slot having the mounting plate in an upper operating position. The tire uniformity testing machine according to claim 14, which enables movement between the lower transportation position and the lower transportation position. The base, to form an installation dimension F _1, the installation is formed dimension F ₁ is the same as the base and larger than the installation measurements F ₁ installation measurements across the F _2, tire uniformity test according to claim 1 Machine. Said base forms an installation dimension F _1, the installation dimension F ¹ is formed by the base as well and across the installation measurements F ₁ greater installation measurements F _2, tire uniformity tester according to claim 10 . a) a road wheel carriage further comprising a rotatable road wheel supported at least partially by the base and movable toward and away from the tire test station along a working transverse line;
b) the rotatable road wheel forms a rolling surface engageable with the periphery of the tire under test, and the rotatable road wheel and tire rotate about a pair of parallel and substantially vertical axes Is possible, the action transverse line passes through the axis,
c) a pair of spaced apart vertical pillars extending upwards are arranged such that a peripheral portion of the rotatable road wheel is located between the supports, the supports being outside the rolling surface 11. A tire uniformity tester according to claim 10, wherein the tire uniformity tester forms an outer installation plane that is tangential to a portion and that is substantially outside of a plane orthogonal to the working transverse line.

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